The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai, will be spending the Eid-el-Fitri holidays with troops fighting Boko Haram insurgents in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital. He is expected to receive briefs from leaders of the troops during the visit, especially regarding their challenges, state of fitness and the need to re-kit them. “I don’t have anything to say for now. I am just a few hours on the job.
With time, we will be talking some more. “I am going to Damaturu to spend the Sallah with our troops there,” he told reporters after he held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa yesterday.
Our correspondent gathered that Buratai was at the Villa to receive further briefs on the direction of the Federal Government regarding the war against insurgency in the North-East and other security problems around the country. Also, Buratai has said that efforts are in top gear to make the command headquarters of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) Multi-National Joint Task Force functional. “We are working hard in collaboration with the Multi-National Joint Task Force to ensure that it comes into full operation,” he said.
The Army Chief did not disclose the content of his discussion with the president on his new posting. He, however, told State House correspondents that events in the nation’s Army command would be unfolded soon.
The army chief was appointed on Monday by President Buhari alongside the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Abayomi Olonishakin; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar; the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibas and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) Buratai, who hails from Borno State, was until his new appointment the Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force which has its headquarters in N’djamena.
He had previously served as Commander of the Nigerian Army’s 2nd Brigade in Port Harcourt and Commander of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry in Jaji, Kaduna State. Meanwhile, the immediate past Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Kenneth Minimah (rtd), has said that he was not given the privilege of knowing when he was to be disengaged or sacked, in view of his position as Army Chief. He said unlike other officers and soldiers, who are informed of their pending disengagement some six months to the time, “ours is radio announcement. You don’t enjoy such privilege.”
Minimah, who spoke yesterday at the Army Headquarters (AHQ), Abuja, while handing over to his successor, Buratai, also noted that he was leaving the Nigerian Army a fulfilled and happy officer, having successfully arrested the imminent drift “towards chaos” in the Army, occasioned by cases of cowardice and indiscipline by some officers and soldiers. Minimah, who expressed satisfaction that he was able to lead the Army to sufficiently degrade Boko Haram and reduce “them to a band of criminals and petty thieves,” added that all Nigerian territories, which were seized by the sect, in the wake of their annexation campaign, were recovered by troops.
His words: “When I hear officers and soldiers complain about their disengagement – writing letters for extension and petition, – I say theirs is a privilege, because they have six months’ notice to plan to disengage. But, ours is radio announcement. You don’t enjoy such privilege.
“As I handover today, I am happy to inform you that the Boko Haram terrorists is at the throes of a certain defeat. “During my tenure, we were able to reclaim all territories earlier lost to the terrorists, sufficiently degrade their potency and reduced them to a band of criminals and petty thieves. We were also able to stabilise the situation in the North-Central,” he noted.
Speaking on the challenges that he was confronted with upon assumption of office 18 months ago, the former Army Chief said: “Barracks were sacked at random, weapons and ammunition carted away and vulnerable civilians wantonly killed by the terrorists. The moral of our troops was at its lowest ebb. Soldiers regularly fled the battlefield on the slightest indication of an approaching adversary. “Sadly, the nation began to lose confidence in its Army and military. The situation was no less grim in the North-Central and North-West where armed bandits, cattle rustlers and ethnic militia held sway. “These and many other challenges, were some of the obstacles we had to surmount under very difficult circumstances.”
Also speaking in a brief remarks, Buratai harped on discipline, warning that “discipline must be maintained in a higher standard.” While paying tribute to his predecessor, Buratai, who is the 20th COAS, added: “I have been admiring the outgoing COAS since his time in the academy. I am also grateful to you because my posting to the MNJTF is a posting that really brought me out and I must thank you sir for bringing me out to the international stage.
Meanwhile, New Telegraph gathered that the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd), handed over to his successor, Major General Abayomi Olonishakin, in an event that took place without press coverage. A military source said the manner of his and other former service chiefs’ sack, may have irked the retired four-star General.
New Telegraph had reported exclusively that the former CDS got news of his sack via television announcement; the sack caught him in his office. The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major General Chris Olukolade, who confirmed the manner Badeh handed over, however, said that a formal handover was being planned for Tuesday.
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